The Maebashi District Court in Gunma prefecture, central Japan, ruled that the central government and TEPCO shall pay a total of 38.55 million yen (340,000 US dollars) in damages to 137 people who fled from Fukushima since the 2011 nuclear disaster.
The 137 plaintiffs have sought 11 million yen (97,100 US dollars) each in compensation for their mental sufferings and loss of livelihood since fleeing from their hometown.
The plaintiffs claimed that the Japanese government should have foreseen the tsunami based on a government estimate in 2002 that there was a 20 percent chance of a magnitude-8-level earthquake occurring within the next 30 years.
The government had issued a "long-term" warning over the possible huge earthquake, and TEPCO also estimated in 2008 that a tsunami as high as 15.7 meters could happen if such a huge earthquake occurred, said the plaintiffs.
The government and TEPCO, however, denied the possibility of foreseeing such a disaster.
The court ruled that the government should have used its regulatory power over TEPCO to take preventive measures in light of previous predictions of huge earthquakes and tsunamis in the area.
It would have been easy for TEPCO to prepare some emergency power sources in high places to prevent the disaster, said the court ruling.
A series of group lawsuits have been filed in 18 different prefectures in Japan by refugees from Fukushima.
It was the first time that a court recognized the state's liability for the 2011 disaster, and might impact later court rulings on other cases, according to lawyers of the plaintiffs.
[globaltimes.cn/China]
17/3/17
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